Demon Blood: Lost in Time
by Ruthie of the Wildcats
Summary: [Sequel to The Story of InuYami] InuYami and Tsugaru find themselves spending a week with family in present day Japan, a place where youkai and hanyou are unknown outside of fiction.
1. Chapter 1

"Mama...standing by the well all day isn't going to make her come," Souta said, laying his arm across his mother's shoulders. She looked up at him.

"I don't care, Souta," she replied. "Kagome will come today. I can feel it."

"You say that every day. She still hasn't come back."

Kagome and Souta Higurashi's mother returned her gaze to the old well. She stared intently into the darkness. _My bones say she's coming today...I can feel it. I don't know how, but I know she will come..._

"Come on, Mama," Souta murmured. "Let's go inside and get you some tea. You need a good lunch." He was in the process of pulling his mother away when a sudden commotion from the darkness attracted his attention.

"Damn! I can't see my claws in front of my face!"

"Shh! I think I hear people up there."

"Oh, well that's just great. Let's hope we're not in the wrong ancient well, for God's sake. You humans don't take well to us dog-eared demons.."

"Tsuga! Scoot over! You're breathing down my neck!"

"I would if I had room to scoot!"

"You two, cut it out. Your mother and I are trying to think." There was a pause. "Okay. I can't think of anything. Plan, Kagome?"

"Yes. You throw me up out of the well."

"Your wish is my command." There was a soft grunt from the shadows, and Kagome suddenly flew up out of the well bottom. She landed in front of her mother and brother. "Mama!" she cried, sweeping the other into a tight hug.

"Kagome! Don't forget about us!" the irritated voice from the well called.

Kagome stuck her tongue out at the well. "Oh, calm down. I'm getting to it. I'm sure a big, strong doggy like yourself can manage two children, can't you?"

"Very well." After a few seconds, InuYasha appeared outside the well, two small children riding on his back. The older of the two was very much like her father, with long silvery hair and white dog ears. She wore similar red robes, but her black obi came back in a small bow behind her, making her robes look a bit more like a kimono. The younger and smaller was his mother's child: he had the same black hair as she did. He was dressed more like a child of this age, in shorts and a t-shirt. They jumped off in unison and rushed Mrs. Higurashi.

"Grandma! Grandma!" they cried, reaching up to hug her. Mrs. Higurashi, now Grandma, knelt down to look at her grandchildren.

"Let's see...yup, you're my grandkids, all right." She looked from the female child to InuYasha. "I remember you when you were just a tiny baby." She tickled the girl's white ears. "You are definitely InuYasha's child. But, I can't recall your name."

"InuYami," the white-haired girl replied. "Remember me now?"

"Ah, yes. But I don't think I've ever seen your handsome brother." She ran her fingers through his black hair. "Your name?"

"Tsugaru!" the boy piped up. He crouched on the ground to scratch behind his ear with a foot. Grandma looked up at the parents.

"He does that," Kagome muttered. "But not as much as Yami does it."

As if this was her cue, InuYami crouched down and scratched as well. After a few seconds of itch-relieving, the pair darted off on all fours in a game of chase. They zipped around the small building that housed the well. The game ended promptly when Tsugaru ran up a wall, then back down it before InuYami could see him. She managed to run straight up the wall, and onto the ceiling, at which point she stopped and fell onto her father's shoulder. "Are you a dog demon or a squirrel demon?" InuYasha asked, giving her ear an affectionate nip.

"Yami, Tsuga, look who else is here," Kagome sang, pointing to Souta. The pair stopped running around long enough to stare at him.

"A man?" Tsugaru asked. InuYami growled and smacked his shoulder.

"He smells like Mom and Grandma, smarty!" she growled. "I think he's..."

"Grandpa!" Tsugaru cried, running to hug the man. InuYami grabbed the back of his shirt.

"No, stupid. He's Mom's brother. That makes him our second Dad or something..."

"That makes him your uncle," Kagome said. The two children shuddered, gazing wide-eyed at each other. InuYami flexed her claws. "Oh. No. He's not like your other uncle. He's different. You can trust him." They nodded and ran to hug him.

Mrs. Higurashi looked up at Kagome. "InuYami seems a bit violent," she mused.

"She isn't really. It's just sibling rivalry. I hit Souta plenty of times when I was a little kid, didn't I?" Kagome grinned. "Don't worry, Mama. They're inseparable. Yami always looks out for Tsuga."

InuYasha nodded, folding his arms into the long sleeves of his robe. He grinned. The tips of his sharp, white fangs glinted in the low light. "Put Tsugaru in a place where InuYami thinks he's in danger, and you'll see what we mean," he said.

Mrs. Higurashi did not feel like asking her hanyou son-in-law to elaborate. Even though Kagome loved him and Souta idolized him, she still felt a little nervous around the big half-demon. "Why don't you come in and sit for a while?" she asked. "I have tea ready. I'm sure there are plenty of stories you want to tell."

Kagome grinned. "Thanks, Mama. Yami, Tsuga! We're going in!" She waved her arm to summon the two children.

Once they were inside, however, InuYami felt the need to run free and Tsugaru was right behind her. "I wanna play Doggy Tag!" he whined. InuYami flattened her ears angrily.

"We will, but you gotta stop whimpering like that," the youkai growled. Tsugaru nodded eagerly and clamped his mouth shut. Kagome opened the door to let them out to play like the puppies they were.

"Stay inside the fence!" she warned, and re-closed the door.

"Now, what was the occasion for the visit?" asked Mrs. Higurashi curiously. "The last time I saw you, that white-haired pup of yours was barely a month old. Is everything all right?"

"We..." Kagome hesitated. "We need your help. Something is wrong...and we have no idea just what it is. But we do know that feudal Japan is no place for those two at the moment. I was...we were...wondering if you..."

"You wanted to know if I would babysit for you two for a while?"

"Shouldn't be more than a week," InuYasha assured her. "Shippou says he's got a lock on it already. I _knew_ he had his uses."

"I would be happy to sit for you," Kaogme's mother replied, smiling happily. "After all, I doubt I'll see my grandkids too many more times. It's a long way to go just to say hi to old Grandma."

Kagome flashed her mother a thankful grin. "Thanks. There's just a few things you should know about them first. InuYami is a full-blooded demon. It's...a long story. That means she's more prone to demonic behavior than Tsugaru."

"All right."

"Oh!" InuYasha looked as if he had just remembered something. "And another thing. Be careful: InuYami's a jumper. She will clear a ten-foot wall solely on the grounds that she can. In fact, she might even try jumping on top of the—" He broke off as the ceiling yielded a sudden, loud thump. "I'll get her," he muttered, pushing himself up. The hanyou padded to the back door, opened it, craned his neck upwards and shouted, "Yami! Off the roof!"

"But Da-ad!" InuYami's protest came, sounding soft, almost as if she was far away or at some great height.

"No buts. Off. Now! You're not in the right time period to be pulling those kinds of stunts! There are no demons in this place!" He stepped back inside just as InuYami landed on the lawn a few feet from the patio. She looked incredibly miffed. Mrs. Higurashi blinked hard.

"Was she just on the...?"

"She was." InuYasha sat back down. "And I don't think she'll try it again. At least, not until I'm gone. Souta, you should be able to get her off. She needs someone to shout, otherwise she'll ignore them."

"Oh, and if there's a full moon, she might try to howl at it..."

"She sounds like a troublemaker."

"She's a demon," InuYasha and Kagome chorused.

The old woman gave a soft sigh. She was going to have her hands full with these two, she could tell. At least Souta was there to help. "Anything else I should keep in mind?" she asked. "Aside from the obvious 'keep the dog ears covered'?"

"No...I think that's about it," InuYasha murmured, looking over at Kagome. The black-haired woman shook her head. "Well, don't be afraid to let them wander. They can find their way back from an amazing distance." He got up, and Kagome followed his lead. Souta helped his mother to her feet.

;-:-;-:-;

"I'm gettin' tired of playing tag, Yami," Tsugaru said. "What else is there to do here while Mommy and Daddy are talkin'?"

InuYami scratched behind her ear thoughtfully. She couldn't keep in a huge yawn, and soon Tsugaru was yawning as well. The youkai padded over to a welcoming clump of bushes and slipped under the low branches. She curled up. "Well I'm gonna take a nap," she declared.

"Can I come in?" her brother asked, poking his head through the branches. InuYami shrugged.

"Sure. Why not?"

The two of them, brother and sister, curled their bodies together into a tight, tired ball. Within minutes, the pair was asleep.

;-:-;-:-;

Kagome stepped outside. She flinched at the noises of Tokyo, so unfamiliar after spending so long in another time period. It seemed unnaturally loud to her. She looked around the yard. "Yami! Tsuga!" she called.

;-:-;-:-;

Under the bush, InuYami's white ears twitched, but she didn't wake up.

;-:-;-:-;

InuYasha added his voice to Kagome's. "InuYami! Tsugaru! Come out! We're leaving soon!" he shouted.

;-:-;-:-;

Tsugaru rolled over in his sleep, brushed a branch with his foot, then curled back up against his sister's warm body. He slipped back into his deep sleep.

;-:-;-:-;

InuYasha's quick eyesight caught the tiny shake of the branch Tsugaru had kicked. He smiled, pointing. Kagome nodded and crept over to the bush. She knelt down in front of it, InuYasha behind her. Together, they parted the branches to reveal the sleeping pair. Kagome smiled back at her mother. "See, Mama? I told you they get along perfectly."

"Are you going to wake them up?" asked Souta. Kagome looked indecisive.

"I don't know," she whispered. "I mean, they should sleep, but they'll be so upset if they found out we left while they were asleep."

InuYasha, however, was not was for indecision. He scooped the pair up and tickled InuYami's nose. The youkai sneezed, the sound of which woke first her, then her brother. She blinked up at him with confused golden eyes. "Wha'ss wrong, Dad?" she mumbled.

"We're leaving, Yami," he replied gently. Tsugaru made a small yelping noise and struggled to reach out for Kagome while holding onto InuYasha. The woman moved closer and ran her fingers through his hair.

"We'll be back in a week," she said soothingly. "In the mean time, you have fun with Grandma and Uncle Souta."

InuYami wrapped her arms around her father's neck, burying her face in his mane of white hair. "I don' wan'chu t' go," she muttered softly. "You or Mom. Stay wi' us."

"We can't. We have to go home and make sure everything is safe for you." InuYasha untangled her fingers from his hair. "We're coming back." He set her down on the ground. InuYami looked up at him, then ran over to her mother. Kagome swept the girl up and held her close.

"Don't leave us! I don't like it here!" Tsugaru pleaded. "It's all noisy and stinky. Why does the air smell so bad? What are all those honking sounds? Is it a demon? A big, smelly, goose demon?"

Kagome looked at InuYasha, pure confusion in her expression. The hanyou shrugged. What was he supposed to say? That the earth was screwed up in the future? He knew both of them would want to do something about it, but what would happen if he told them the truth: there was nothing they could do about it? "No...It's...called a car," he ventured. "They...make those noises and smells."

Tsugaru sighed. "'Snot very nice," he mumbled.

The parents were stuck. They had to leave now. Their children did not want them to leave for the next hour or so, if ever. Mrs. Higurashi came to the rescue. "They're going on a mission to make sure this doesn't happen to the world," she said. "Do you really want to hold them back from that?"

InuYami and Tsugaru exchanged a terrified glance before giving each parent a quick squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. Kagome gave her mother one last hug, and InuYasha pushed his fist against Souta's. "Go get 'em, Bro," Souta said. InuYasha nodded, and he and Kagome departed down the well.

InuYami turned to Tsugaru. It was official now. They were away from their parents for a whole week, and were staying at their grandmother's house. They were stuck in another time period, one where youkai and hanyou were unheard of out of storybooks. And they were together, a dynamic duo of unhuman powers.

What to do first?


	2. Chapter 2

InuYami tugged the cowboy hat onto her head. She sat down, adjusted it, and nodded. Looking up at Souta, she told him, "This one fits nicely, Uncle Souta. It doesn't crush my ears like the other one does."

"You can't wear that one, Yami," Souta said with a sigh. "It would make you stand out more than you should. Those rich, red robes and that white hair...they don't scream 'ten gallon hat.'"

InuYami scowled and pulled the hat off. Souta thought for a few minutes, then snapped his fingers. "I got it!" He reached back into the closet and pulled out a small baseball cap. He tugged it down on top of the little youkai girl's head. "Try that on."

InuYami blinked and ran her fingers across the soft fabric of the cap. It felt good; in fact, she could hardly feel it at all. She smiled, nodding to Souta. "I like it. It's nice."

"It used to be mine," he explained. "Back in the days of little-league baseball."

Tsugaru's head popped up from behind the closet door. He stared at the hat on his sister's head, then scratched behind his ear. "Looks cool on you, Yami," he said. "And it really hides your ears."

InuYami pulled the cap off her head and held it in her lap. "I know, but I don't like hiding them." The white appendages twitched in an irritated way. "People shouldn't care that my ears are different."

"If only we could find a way to make everyone believe that," Souta murmured. "Then there would be no more fighting. But, sadly, the world doesn't listen to most ten-year-olds."

"I'd make 'em listen."

Souta shook his head, smiling slightly at his bold youkai niece. InuYami replaced the cap and stood up. "So can we go now?" she asked excitedly. Souta nodded, motioning for Tsugaru to follow behind him.

"Mama!" he called. "We're leaving now!"

"Have fun, you three!" his mother's voice replied. Souta grinned, and took InuYami's and Tsugaru's hands in his own. They left the shrine, headed for the park. As soon as they were out of the door, the two tugged their hands free from their uncle's grasp. InuYami crouched down on the ground and Tsugaru hopped on her back.

"No! Yami, you can't. You have to act like a mortal girl. Mortal girls can't carry their brothers on their backs while they jump four feet at a time!"

InuYami scowled. She hated this new world. The rules were too specific. Mortal girls didn't have white puppy ears. Mortal girls couldn't run faster than a slug. Mortal girls couldn't carry their own weight on their backs, and run and jump unhindered. Mortal girls couldn't do anything!

Tsugaru slid from his sister's back glumly. "But then how're we supposed to get there?" he asked. "Yami carries me everywhere. She's really fast!"

"But she's supposed to be a human, Tsuga," Souta said gently. "And humans can't do what youkai can. Yami's demon blood has to be kept a secret."

InuYami shrugged and stood up. She dusted off her robes. "Fine," she growled. "I don't care. But it's not my fault if it takes more than a few minutes to get there."

Tsugaru padded over to his sister and wrapped his arms around her neck. InuYami lifted him effortlessly. She looked to Souta. "Is this all right?" she asked dryly.

"Yes. You can carry him like that, so long as you walk and not jump. I know how hard this is for you, not being able to show your youkai side."

InuYami was silent for the rest of the walk up to the park. But, Souta noticed, the whole time they were walking, Tsugaru held his sister's hand, and appeared to be soothing her. _They do get along fine...it's just a matter of what they're doing._

;-:-;-:-;

InuYami gave a joyful yelp and ran towards the playground, half-dragging Tsugaru behind her. Finally, after that tedious, slow walk, they were here. Not too far away, she spotted a group of friendly-looking girls about her age. She uncurled Tsugaru's fingers from her own. "Okay, Tsuga," she said, "you find some people to play with, and I'll do the same. We'll meet back here in an hour. After that, we should have a pretty good idea of what the future will be like."

Tsugaru nodded. He could see a group of boys playing with a bright orange ball on a black thing in the distance. But what really appealed to him was seeing a bunch of younger girls playing together in the sandbox. InuYami nodded, giving him a parting hug, and walked off to join the other girls.

"Hi!" she said cheerfully, coming towards the group. The tallest, who was slightly shorter than the youkai, examined InuYami with a mixture of interest and disgust.

"Hi..." she replied at length. "What's...with your clothes?" She pointed to InuYami's crimson robes. "Where'd you get those? The reject pile at the Salvation Army?" The rest of the clique giggled. InuYami had no idea what the heck a "Salvation Army" was, so she decided to be honest.

"No...my Mom sewed them for me herself." She stood with her hands on her hips to show off the wide, flowing sleeves. "My Dad wears robes just like these, only bigger, 'cause he's really tall."

"And your nails?" one of the lesser girls sneered. "What look were you going for? Halloween's not for another month, kiddo."

InuYami opened her mouth to tell them that they were actually claws, and it took a significant amount of effort just to trim them. Anyways, her claws weren't always growing. They grew whenever they needed to, whether it was to heal a flaw in the nail or to accommodate for new growth in her hands. But then she remembered that Uncle Souta and Grandma had both forbidden her to say anything that might reveal her as being a demon and not a human.

"I...like them long," she said after a pause.

The leader of the clique sauntered over to InuYami and picked up a length of the youkai girl's silver hair like she would a snake. "I'm impressed," she jeered. "I was expecting your hair to be all slimy and unwashed. You know, long hair is so out." She brushed at her short, black hair to accent the remark. InuYami's heart fell.

"Well...my Dad keeps his hair like this. My Mom thinks it makes us look cute when we're together..."

"And this hat!" The leader gripped the brim of InuYami's baseball cap tightly between her thumb and index finger. The youkai shifted backwards a step or two. If that girl got her hat off...she would see her ears and know that InuYami was a demon. "What are you trying to pull? Are you a little tomboy? You're so cute it sickens me." She gave the youkai a shove.

InuYami normally wouldn't have been pushed back by such a pathetic blow, but it seemed that her sorrow at the girls' scorn had sapped her strength. She stumbled backwards, landing heavily on the ground. And there she sat, tear filling her eyes. Soft whimpers emanated from her throat, but no one noticed. No one seemed to care about the misfit girl who had gotten herself into a losing battle with the popular crowd.

;-:-;-:-;

Tsugaru wasn't faring much better. Everything had started out fine for him. The little girls at the sandbox had eagerly accepted his company, telling him he was cute. Tsugaru was in heaven. He recalled going to a lake years ago with his parents and InuYami. The foursome had spent hour after hour just playing in the sand together. It had been the perfect day for the little hanyou.

He had made so many friends in that first half hour. Claire, the oldest of the group, was his own age. She told him openly that she wanted to marry him when they were older. Tsugaru had laughed and said he thought she was pretty. He loved the way her eyes sparkled when she laughed. They were different eyes than the rest of his family had. He was used to finding comfort in golden eyes, but now he found himself entranced by the shimmering blue.

"Hey kid! What d'you think you're doing with the girls?" someone demanded from behind the hanyou. Tsugaru turned nervously. A group of boys his older than him were standing around the sandbox. He waved shyly.

"Uh...h-hi. Me?" Tsugaru pointed a claw to his chest. "I'm just having fun at the sandbox. My Mommy and Daddy took me and my big sister to the beach once, and we had a lot of fun there. I thought that the sandbox would be kinda like the beach."

The biggest of the boys leaned closer, putting his face up against Tsugaru's. "I get it...you're just a little fairy aren't you?" he asked. Tsugaru shook his head.

"No...my Daddy says I'm a hanyou," he declared. "And my big sister's a..." He stopped himself. "Er...I mean, no, I'm just a normal human boy. My sister's a normal human girl." He grinned broadly. The boy stepped forward, cracking his knuckles. Tsugaru gulped. This was not looking good, not good at all.

;-:-;-:-;

The sun had started to set, turning the world an eerie shade of red, almost like blood had drenched the landscape. Most of the families had left the park to go home for dinnertime or bedtime or because-your-little-sister-is-cranky-that's-why-time. Souta was still trying his luck at picking up a young woman.

;-:-;-:-;

InuYami walked backwards, her fingers arched to show her long claws. Her golden eyes flickered nervously left and right, back and forth. A thin line of red ran across the top of her left foot, a line that led up to a nasty scrape on her knee. She didn't care. The other girl had been lucky to escape with the skin on her arm. The youkai crept slowly, her gaze watchful for any more girls. She'd had enough of their taunts and cutting remarks. The next person to cross the daughter of InuYasha was going to walk away maimed...if they could walk at all when she was finished with them.

;-:-;-:-;

Tsugaru walked in reverse as well. His hands, unlike his sister's, were held up by his face. There was a throbbing patch on his arm that would erupt into a violently-hued bruise tomorrow morning. It hurt...he wasn't used to hurt. Nothing more than a stumble, or a smack from InuYami. He sniffled softly as he walked. Forget the future. He had been born in the past, and that was where he belonged! The hanyou wasn't looking for a fight. He was really looking for a way to _avoid_ one. InuYami had given him self-defense lessons long ago. Now Tsugaru was prepared to use those lessons...well, the defense part of them, at least.

;-:-;-:-;

The two figures padded, back-to-back, towards each other. Their watchful eyes swept the emptying playground warily. The red light danced in their pale eyes, making them truly look like the hanyou and youkai they were. With one final step, their heels touched, and they whirled on each other.

;-:-;-:-;

InuYami whipped around, snarling and flexing her claws. Her eyes were wide and were shifting from gold to red at a rapid rate. All of the bitterness she had been shown in that one afternoon surged through her veins, beginning the transformation to the form of the youkai...her true form.

Her fangs lengthened, as did her nose and mouth. Bluish-purple stripes could be seen on either side of her face. Her white hair swept back in a flowing mane. She barked, loud and harsh. InuYami, the youkai daughter of InuYasha, was beginning to change.

;-:-;-:-;

Tsugaru heard the angry snarls and flinched, drawing his body close into a ball of fear. He willed himself to not wet his pants like he still did in bursts of extreme terror. Images flashed through his mind. What was it that was growling like that? A ferocious guard dog? An angry bully come to deliver yet another blow to his sore body? He whimpered quietly, hoping that whatever it was would get it over with now and leave him alone.

;-:-;-:-;

The siblings' reactions took place in the same instant. The light was getting lower every minute, making it harder and harder to see who was friend...and who was foe. Soon the only light left was the bloody crimson stain. Two figures stood locked in a battle of wills; the odds were a rough equivalent of what chance a hummingbird egg would stand of remaining intact when an anvil was dropped atop it.

;-:-;-:-;

InuYami was the first to realize what was wrong. She sniffed, and received a powerful flood of scent information. That was new. But what gave her the most cause to worry was the scent of her brother...and his fear. InuYami snarled angrily. Who dared scare her brother? She looked around. There was no one else there. "Tsuga!" she tried to say, but all that came out was a guttural bark.

;-:-;-:-;

Tsugaru whimpered and curled into a tighter ball. "Don't hurt me..." he whimpered.

;-:-;-:-;

InuYami took a slow breath in and looked herself over. Well. That was certainly different. She was covered in thick white fur. Her hands had become huge, clawed paws. _This must be my...but then that means...I'm really a dog? But then I don't really look like Dad at all! I look like...Uncle Sesshoumaru! How do I reverse this? How? How? How?** HOW?**_

The youkai bent down, almost frightened by her brother's shaking body. She didn't want to be like this...it scared Tsugaru. Then, in a rush of calm, it was over,. She checked her paws. Hands. Her arms. Furless. Her face. Nose was back to being a nose and not a snout. She tapped his shoulder. "Tsuga..."

Tsugaru uncurled, then flung himself at his sister. "YAMI!" he howled. Tears spilled from both pairs of eyes. United in fear and longing for their parents' return, the pair clung tightly to each other. After a few minutes of crying, InuYami stood up. She tore the baseball cap from her head and flung it on the ground.

"That's it!" she snapped. "I've had it up to **here** with people making fun of us! Come on, Tsuga. Let's go back."

She took her brother's hand, and the pair of them, youkai and hanyou, walked away from the playground. Night had fallen. Souta had pulled himself away form his lady friend long enough to shout, "Yami! Tsuga!...InuYami! Tsugaru!...Where are you?"


	3. Chapter 3

"About this tall, Officer," Souta said hoarsely, holding his hand at thigh level. "She has long, white hair, and I mean long. She was wearing the same clothes she always wears: beautiful, red robes. Her eyes are...a very unusual shade of hazel. Yes...they look almost golden. Her name is InuYami."

"Where did you last see her, and who was she with?" the officer asked, scribbling down Souta's description.

"At the park...with her younger brother, Tsugaru."

"And he's missing as well?"

"Yes, sir."

The sergeant flipped the piece of paper with InuYami's description over and set his pen down on a new page. "Tell me about him."

"Well...he's short for his age. Six years old. InuYami is nine. Tsugaru is probably about three-nine, maybe three-nine-and-a-half. He's got short black hair, and his eyes are very light brown. He looks so much like my older sister...Where was...Oh. Yes. He was wearing blue shorts and a blue shirt. If their parents weren't kidding, they're definitely together."

The sergeant nodded and closed his book. "We'll call you if we find anything out," he promised. "In the mean time, you and your mother take it easy for a while...settle down and relax. Don't worry. They're young children and they've only been missing for an hour. They can't have gone far." With that, he left.

Souta sat down hard. "Maybe if they were human," he muttered.

;-:-;-:-;

InuYami padded along the dark street. Tsugaru poked his head up from her mane of white hair. "Yami...I'm scared," he whispered. "I wanna go back with Grandma and Uncle Souta."

"Me too, Tsuga," InuYami murmured. "But you know what? We're lost. We're not gonna find them." She sat down on the street corner with a sigh. "I say we sit here and wait for them to find us. But it might be a while, so we have to stay strong. Okay? From now on, if we find any food, we save it. At least, a little bit...'cause we don't know how long it'll take for them to find where we are."

"Who's lookin' fer you?" a raspy voice asked. InuYami turned to see an old-looking man sitting across the street from them. He had something clenched in his right hand, and appeared to be very unsteady. Being the naive child that she was, InuYami decided that he could help her out, and crossed the dimly lit street with Tsugaru on her back.

"Excuse me, sir, but do you know where Higurashi Shrine is?" the youkai asked politely. The drunk wrapped his free hand firmly around the street lamp. He leaned close, and InuYami flinched away from the harsh smell of alcohol.

"Y'got dog ears," he muttered, slurring his words. "Lookit 'em. All white 'n' furry. Don'cha jus' wanna touch 'em?" He stretched out two fingers to touch InuYami. The youkai allowed him to stroke her white ears. Hey, if she made him happy, maybe he would help her. It was always worth a shot.

"Do you know which way the Shrine is?" she asked again. The drunk leaned closer.

"Y'know, puppy-girl, yer kinda cute. How's-a 'bout you 'n' me find a nice, quiet alley an'...y'know..." He made a few gestures. InuYami, still with Tsugaru clinging to her back like a baby monkey, backed away.

"I...don't quite understand..."

The drunk man lunged forward suddenly, hands grasping for the youkai child's robes. InuYami reacted quickly, kicking his hand away and leaping onto the nearest fence. Tsugaru screamed fearfully. InuYami clasped a hand over his mouth and ran, holding him in front of her like a baby. She raced along the length of the fence, the drunk shouting curses after her. After running for nearly a mile without stopping, InuYami stumbled and fell, toppling off the edge of the fence.

Thankfully, she fell on the side with the grass rather than the pavement. The fall knocked her mind blank. Tsugaru gripped in unconscious sister's hand tightly, whimpering. He didn't know that the drunk was long since left behind. After seeing how fast InuYami could run, even his cloudy mind knew better than to try and catch up with her. The shadows gathered around the hanyou, laughing evilly, sneering at him. He shook his sister's shoulder.

"Yami...wake up! I'm scared!"

InuYami groaned softly and opened one golden eye. She sat up slowly, rubbing the back of her head. "Ts...Tsuga. Where are we?" The youkai girl stood up shakily, leaning on her brother for support. "Where's everyone?" She slumped back down to the ground, still dizzy from her recent fall. She moaned. Tsugaru did the only thing he could: wrap her into a tight hug and offer what little comfort he could. They stayed there, in the darkness behind the fence, locked together.

After a while, InuYami's mind began to clear, and she regained her strength. She was about to tell Tsugaru to get back on her back when bright lights flashed around them, blue and red. A shrill shriek rent the air, ripping through the youkai's sensitive ears. To two small children who had never heard a police siren before, it sounded like someone being murdered. InuYami removed the upper portion of her robe. "Hide under here with me," she hissed. Tsugaru hurried to obey. Shivering with fear, the two listened to the unfamiliar sounds of the city, their minds creating fearful images to go along with the sounds and smells.

"Tsugaru! InuYami!" a voice called. InuYami shivered. It was the spirit of the person who had just been killed. It had seen the two of them run, and was asking for them. It wanted to know why they had fled instead of helped. Now it was dead, a spirit, and was calling for the two demons to pay for leaving it to die alone. She put her arm around Tsugaru's shoulders. _Please...don't hurt us,_ she pleaded mentally. _We're just lost and scared...we don't know where we are or how to get home! Forgive us!_

The screaming siren started up again, fading slowly into the distance. When the world was quiet again, InuYami sat up, replacing her robe around her upper body. Tears were running down Tsugaru's cheeks. "InuYami, I wanna go home," he whispered. "Not just back with Grandma and Uncle Souta. _Home_ home. Back to where the air doesn't stink, and it's peaceful and quiet at night. I wanna see Ms. Sango, and Mr. Miroku, and Kilala, and Shippou...I wanna go home!"

InuYami let him rave and cry. She didn't bother telling him to stop being a baby. If they were lost back at home, it wouldn't have been a problem. Back in feudal Japan, the air was clear enough that InuYami could track her father down from a distance of nearly thirty miles. But here...she could barely even smell where she and Tsugaru had been. Too many odors entered her nostrils, confusing her sense of smell. She shook her head hopelessly. They were lost in the city of Tokyo, lost by not only miles, but by thousands of years.

"Come on, Tsugaru," she ordered. "Hop on my back. It's dark enough that no one will see us if we jump high like Dad does."

Tsugaru sniffled softly. "C...Can you jump like him?" he asked.

"I can try." InuYami crouched down, waiting until she felt Tsugaru wrap his arms around her neck and grab his fist securely. Then she shot into the air, soaring an easy ten feet, straight up. Tsugaru gave a muted whimper of excitement. InuYami smiled as the wind roared in her soft, white ears. The rush of air made her feel much better, ridding her of the achy feeling in the back of her head. She touched down on the roof of a nearby building to rest, tired out by the sudden flurries of activity that had taken place in only the past few hours.

"We gotta stop for a while," she panted. "I can't breathe...It's like this air is heavy...it's so thick..." She leaned back against the side of the apartment building. Tsugaru sat down beside her. InuYami was scared. Why couldn't she breathe? She had never had problems like this back home. She could run for hours on end and not be the slightest bit out of breath. But now...She coughed. Air pollution was slowly sapping her breath. Tsugaru had a flash of insight.

"Yami! Breathe through your robes!" he said, jumping up and down. "Don't breathe the air right in. Breathe through something first."

Shakily, the youkai lifted her robe-sleeve to her nose and sucked down air through the fabric. The filter did some good, and eased the stress her panting had placed on her lungs. Soon she could breathe again. "Tsuga..." she rasped. "I don't think we can survive here..."

"Hey! Get off the roof, ya crazy teenagers!" an angry voice snapped. Startled, InuYami grabbed her brother and leapt down from the roof, landing neatly in the branches of a young tree. She felt a brief pang of longing for the ancient, sturdy tree outside their house in feudal Japan. She stifled a wave of tears at the thought of her home. _Will we ever see it again?_

"InuYami...I changed my mind," whispered Tsugaru nervously. "I don't care if it's back to be with Grandma and Uncle Souta. I want to be anywhere but here."

"Me too...but I don't know how we're going to get back." InuYami's golden gaze shifted from the silhouette in the second-story window to the square of light cast onto the stubby grass of the lawn. She dug her claws into the branch, biting her lip hard.

"Why don't we ask someone?" the hanyou asked innocently. InuYami sighed.

"Look at me, Tsuga," she whispered. "You look human. You have some demon blood, but not enough to change your appearance. Me, on the other hand, I have no human blood to speak of...I can't possibly look human. I'm a freak here, Tsuga. A freak." Angry tears spilled down her cheeks. "No one would help me. I look like some witchcraft gone horribly wrong! And I can't change to make it any better."

"You can turn into a dog," Tsugaru pointed out.

"No...I _am_ a dog. That form you saw...that's what I really am." InuYami didn't dare look her brother in the eyes. "What you see now...that's not how I really look. I bet I was born looking like a dog, and then turned into what I am now."

Tsugaru was silent for a few minutes, letting the realization sink in, InuYami guessed. Finally, he wrapped his arms around her. "I don't care if you're a big, fluffy doggy or a pretty, fun girl. You're my sister. You can't change that just by turning into something else."

InuYami cuddled her brother close. "I'm glad I'm here with you," she whispered. Then, dropping down, she tried to duplicate a feat. Tsugaru scratched behind his ear.

"What'cha doing?" he asked.

"I'm trying to change into my true form," was the muttered reply. "You can walk around the city with me, and I'll pass for your pet dog."

"But Yami, you didn't look like a normal dog."

InuYami's hope deflated instantly. She sighed and slumped down against the tree. "You're right, Tsuga...but I really wish you weren't."

;-:-;-:-;

"What did they say, Souta? Have they found them?"

"No, Mama, but they have a lead."

"What? What did they find?"

"The sergeant says he found a drunk man who claimed to have seen a white-haired girl in red robes, with a blue-clothed boy on her back. What makes it even more interesting is that the drunk also claimed that she had two white, fuzzy dog ears. Of course, the sergeant brushed the ears off as a drunken hallucination, but _we_ know better."

"So they may be close to finding them?"

"They may be. But if he saw her ears, then InuYami wasn't wearing the hat, and she's likely trying to hide from anyone who comes near her. I told her that if she lost her hat, no one could see her, and she should come and find me."

"Souta...do you think they'll find those two before Kagome and InuYasha get back?"

"I hope so, Mama...I hope so..."

;-:-;-:-;

The morning came, cool and crisp, with slight traces of fog in the air. InuYami nudged Tsugaru. The hanyou awoke, blinking his eyes sleepily. "Wha' time's it?" he mumbled. InuYami scanned the horizon carefully, sketching a few figures in the air with her claws. She sat back down.

"Little after six," she replied.

Tsugaru groaned and curled back into a warm ball under his sister's robe. InuYami, feeling stiff and sore and very cold, quickly joined him. She snuggled up beside him. "I hurt everywhere," she moaned. "How about you?"

"Everywhere and even places where nothing is," was the mumbled reply. InuYami understood what he meant. In the darkness below the red robe, she felt her knee. The injury had bled on and off during the night, staining the grass reddish-brown. She knew Tsugaru would have the marks of his bully fights all over him. Her stomach snarled hungrily.

Demon children, both hungrier than they could ever recall being and battered from un-belonging, curled up together to sleep, hoping that when they next awoke, things would be looking better for them.

A/N: All right, here's where I need help from you. I need suggestions of misfortunate (and non-lethal) things that can happen over the course of the days awaiting until InuYasha and Kagome return. Yes, this means you might have to wait for the next chapter. XD


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